It's the End of the World, Didn't You Get the Memo?
by The Doctor's Wife - MS
Summary: Malachy and Katherine McKinney are settled in a church two miles from where Rick's group are travelling, only for Carl Grimes to stumble into the woods and be crowded with walkers forcing the McKinney siblings to take action and then disappearing. [Daryl Dixon/OC]
1. Summary

Doctor Katherine McKinney was never one for superstitions, and never was her brother Malachy, but they never knew that their uncle was preparing for the end, keeping a bunker of survival gear beneath the house. It mattered for a number of months after the outbreak, when the bunker was compromised and their uncle's death, Katherine had to go on a search to find her brother's unit in Fort Benning.

It's day 297, two months after Malachy and Katherine lost their group to walkers, they are settled in a church two miles from where Rick's group are travelling, only for Carl Grimes to stumble into the woods and be crowded with walkers, forcing the McKinney siblings to take action and then disappearing without a thought.

Rick and Daryl take action to find them, wanting to express their thanks, and question if they could work together to find a new haven.


	2. Hey There Sheriff

Finding a church made of new, modern brick and the size of a two bedroom house in an enclosed forest was an understatement to how lucky Malachy and Katherine McKinney had gotten over the past two months. They had a group of eight, not including them, and they were all killed in an overcrowd that surrounding the church because of the smell that came from a few foxes and wild dogs that were trapped and died inside. The Sargent and the military Doctor had taken them all out with their twelve years and twenty years of experience before holding the church with all of the bags, clothes and food that belonged to the ranges of age that was in their group.

The church was two miles in the centre of the forest, right away from open road and they had created a steep moat around it, blocking the doors, which were filled up with gasoline, for when the time came. They got in and out by a tunnel that was made a few years before, it lead up to a creek, a non-polluted river and a clear road where they could get to the closest town, which wasn't needed, they had enough food and water to last until the next winter.

"Day two hundred and ninety seven sis, God bless uncle Dermot," Malachy's thick Irish accent entered up from a small shaft, into what was the priest's office with their fresh, dried clothing. He was wearing his usual military get up, his badges firmly attached to the lapels of his jacket, with his numerous guns kept underneath. It was hardly ever clean; they tried not to go out so many times because they didn't want to bring in the walkers again. They were never clean either, but they boiled water to attempt to get a hot bath in the metal tins they found in the wine cellar in the tunnel. For an apocalypse, they did look good, Katherine couldn't go two days without having her beloved lipstick, a pinkish shade of red and her eyeliner. She would raid three stores to make sure she had stocked up.

"For the gun supply or for me?" Came his sister's earthly voice, popping out from behind the door, her deep toffee hair falling off her shoulder with her half-moon glasses perched on her nose, probably getting stuck into the small library's benefits. Dermot, a devoted and the last man associated to their family and kept himself and Katherine safe by his secret bunker underneath their home in Dublin, everyone thought that Dermot McKinney was a complete nutcase for thinking that the end was coming so soon, but if he hadn't, Katherine would have never gotten her brother back.

"Both, baby girl," Malachy's grin widened, tossing her the bag of laundry in her direction, and she caught it perfectly. "So I was thinking, beef? There's a few cows in the west, no walkers have gotten to them yet, and they don't look sick,"

"You'll be the one dragging it back and skinning it outside in the dark," Katherine chuckled, her redheaded brother following her into the next room where the benches had been broken up, made together for beds or firewood. Her pale green eyes flickered over at the statue of JC, and up at the line of five, small bells that had been set up on a wooden plate, each one attached to strong wire that alerted them if someone, or a walker had breached into the mile radius around the church, parting off some of the creek and their cars.

"Anything on bell radar?" Malachy questioned with a grin, bright blue eyes glinting, setting down the guns that he had one him, apart from his trusted handgun he had first received in the army and into a drawer where piles of others were, thanks to the rest of their group.

"Bit of a chime early, might have just been an animal," She told him, crossing her arms over the black and red flowered tank top that fitted tight around her petite body, heavy chest and covered her numerous Latin tattoos around the bottom of her shoulder blades, but the ugly scar that wrapped all the way around her right arm was visible. "Get me my cigarettes?"

"Stole a few, the Impala is running low on gas," He chucked her three packets of Marlboro Red and her keys to her their father's car, left to Katherine when he died.

"You didn't fill it?" Katherine gasped at her baby being mistreated by her bother as she stuck the pockets in her shredded jeans.

"Didn't think we were going anywhere for a while," Malachy shrugged carelessly and she rolled her eyes, only for the west bell to chime again. "There's something out there," Malachy narrowed his eyes with the dramatic voice, grabbing his guns and loading up again, and Katherine grabbed her worn out leather jacket, material cut around the sleeves. She shrugged it on and putting the handguns in her thigh holster, tight around her shredded denim jeans and put the hunting knife in the side of her low heel ankle boot.

"Don't take too much, if it's a crowd we get back in the tunnel, and light this bitch up," Katherine warned him, grabbing her sniper, clutching it in her fingerless gloves and they headed back into the room with the shaft, making sure to shut the hatch behind them as they headed down.

"I don't want those sons of bitches eating my dinner before I get the chance to cook it," Malachy muttered in a gruff voice, the tunnel lit up with candles to show them the way as they ran.

"Come on," She nudged him in the arm and they eventually made it to the edge of the tunnel, climbing the wooden ladder that lead into a small cemetery, and they made their way through the blue spray painted trees they stated that it a safe zone.

"Hold up," Malachy put his hand up, and they made themselves thin against the trees, the Sargent lifting up his sniper and looking through the zoomed scope, noticing a small boy walking through the area aimlessly. The boy wasn't close to being a walker, wearing a dirtied Sheriff's hat and dark clothes that disguised him with the forest, but Malachy could easily spot him. He was also holding a rather large gun with a silencer tightly wound tight into it.

"A kid?" Katherine whispered, looking around and raising an eyebrow, adjusting the backpack that contained all of her medical supplies. 'Keep calm and kill zombies' how ironic.

"He's armed and he's not alone," She assumed that her older brother was talking about maybe he was with a group, but she found out that he really meant the group of walkers that began to surround the boy.

"Plan of attack?" Malachy could only smirk at her, the scruff of his long stubble bristling against his lips.

"Gotcha," She laughed, the two running in with their guns, silences firmly on and blocking out the sounds as they began taking down the walkers. Katherine made her way to the boy, grabbing the gun from him and placing it down the back of her pants. "Sorry, but this isn't your department Sheriff," She smiled cheekily, taking the knife from her boot and driving it into a walker's skull behind her.  
Malachy took down several walkers at once with sharp shooting skills, and Katherine had to attempt to keep an eye on the long haired boy as she also drove the heads off with her sharp knife. Her sniper was now tightly strapped to her back and her gun accompanied the boy's in her pants.

By the time they were finished, brain matter covered their cleaned clothes, Malachy cursing under his breath knowing that he'd have to polish his badges once again, and they looked at the kid with narrowed eyes, the three standing amongst eight bodies of walkers.

"You've got some nerve walkin' through here on your own kid," Malachy's anger made his accent thicker, harder to understand to the boy's ears and he raised his eyebrows in confusion at the two.

"You're lucky we knew you were here or else you would have been attracting a lot more than if you were alive," Katherine told him in a threatening voice, her Irish not as thick as her brother's thanks to the time spent in America.

"I-I'm sorry-"

"Where's your group? You do have a group don't you?" Malachy questioned and the boy nodded hesitantly. "My name is Sargent Malachy McKinney, this is my sister Doctor Katherine McKinney, we'll take you to your group, explain what happened and then we'll leave you, don't you ever think about walking through here again if you know what's good for you,"

"Mal, don't scare the kid," Katherine whispered, glaring at the thirty year old and the boy rolled his eyes.

"I'm not a kid! My name is Carl,"

"Alright _Carl_, let's go," Malachy literally grabbed him by the scruff his jacket collar and pulled him in direction of the road.

"Are those your badges?" Carl questioned, staring at the badges from the angle he was at. "Were you in the army?"

"We were-"

"You don't know this boy and you're telling him about us? We keep to ourselves, only thing they need to know is our name," Malachy spat, Katherine threatening to cuff him over the head. "We're close," He pointed up to a purple spray painted X on a tree, acknowledging that they were now in a danger zone.

"It's a little up the road, please don't tell my mom-"

"Your mother will be highly pissed off already knowing that you went walking at this time of day," The younger sister informed him, looking at her watch to see it was coming on to five o' clock, if Malachy wanted a bit of beef for dinner, he wasn't getting it now. "We won't get back until late, we'll have to be careful of the trees, maybe sit up in the Overlook until first light," She explained to her brother and he grumbled underneath his breath.

"I'm really sorry," Carl apologized sincerely just as they found a bluish-green car up the way with a group around it, Carl called for his mom and a pregnant woman turned around at them, deer in the headlights when she saw Katherine and Malachy with an amount of weapons. "It's alright, they saved me," He told them just as they were about to raise their weapons, Katherine somehow recognised the tall, dark muscled man and a younger Korean guy, but she wasn't sure, it had been seven months since she started travelling.

"Did you?" The pregnant woman almost hugged Carl to death, and the rest of their group looked at the two Irish folk with odd looks. Mixed ages were amongst the group, reminding Katherine of their people, two girls merely twenty, the same with a Korean man, there were others but Malachy didn't have the time nor care. "I told you to stay in the car!" She scowled at Carl angrily.

"Yeah, he was in our territory, about eight walkers around him. You're lucky we were close, and you didn't spoil our dinner," Malachy told them and the woman patted her son on the back, struggling to get up because of her belly and approached them.

"Thank you so much, what can we do to repay you?"

"Don't go further than the purple paint; you'll be saving your ammo. Let's go," Katherine squeezed her brother's shoulder and they turned around without another word, heading back inside the forest.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Aunt Pol's beef stew! Eh, what'da tell you?" Malachy grinned away, showing off meat stricken teeth as they sat in the main room of the church on dusted old couches that they had found in an antique shop a few weeks back, trying to make the place their own. Night had fallen down over Georgia; a few candles had been lit around the Jesus Christ statue, not enough to attract walkers through the windows but just enough to light up the room.

"It's hardly Aunt Pol who made it," Katherine smiled timidly, taking a bite from the freshly cooked cow, but it was a shame that they couldn't keep the whole thing.

"She gave _me_ the recipe," He snatched a note from the table where their cooking instruments were, cupboards of food and bottles of water, and dangled it in his sisters face, and she slapped his hand away with a laugh. It was their aunt Pol's recipe that was scribbled on the paper; she would make it every Friday back in Dublin before Malachy left for the army when he was seventeen. She died when Katherine had begun to practice as a nurse, she looked after her the extra two years that the chemo gave her.

"I got the car and you've got a shitty SUV," Katherine argued back childishly, letting Malachy laugh quietly and she winced, holding her stomach and her brother looked at her, worried, placing the bowl on the fixed wooden floor and moved over to her. "I'm fine-"

"It's got to still hurt," He lifted up her favourite vest, pushing her jacket out the way to see the tightly wound bandage, blood had already seeped through. "My terrible stitching," Malachy looked up with a crumbled smile, guilt washing over him for what he had to do.

"I would have died if you didn't," Katherine assured him, as if reading his mind and looking down at the bandage that was stuck across the bottom of her flat stomach, along with a few other bristle scars. "I'll need to change it, stick the bowl on a low heat, I'll be right back," Katherine lifted herself from the seat, pushing her matted, damp bangs out the way of her leaf and statue coloured eyes before making her way to the office, grabbing her medic bag, full of absolutely everything. It took her months to find her brother, and she stole as much medicine and supplies as she could. She shut the door behind her, hearing her brother resting against the other side as she grabbed the partially broken mirror and rested against the desk and wall, lifting her shirt again and peeling off the gauze with a painful grunt.

"It should be healed by now, it's only been two weeks since it happened Kathy," Malachy told her as she looked at the thick line underneath her stomach, and the three bullet holes that sat below and just above it. It looked like a child had stitched it together with wool, but Katherine had no choice but to guide him through the whole procedure by directions on a piece of paper while under.

"You took my womb out Mal, not to mention I was shot three times. Good thing we're the same blood type," Katherine informed, taking a case of needle and stitching thread, taking the old ones out and then stitching the new ones in, gritting her teeth, grinding together as the pain overwhelmed her.

"AB-, rarest blood type in the Old Country," He informed his young sister with a grin, even though she couldn't see it; she laughed at how proud he sounded. "You done in there?" Malachy questioned as she shoved a few antibiotics down her throat and made sure her bandage was on firmly. Katherine couldn't help but let her mind wonder to the group that had encountered, and if they'd be alright.

"We should have offered Carl's group shelter, they had a pregnant woman," Katherine suggested after a few minutes of silence, stepping out of the office with the old dressing and tossing them in the bin.

"The reason we are constantly changing that bandage is because we offered a group shelter Katherine-March," Malachy exclaimed quietly, his dark red eyebrows furrowing together when he used her full name. "You almost died, and the wound isn't healing quickly because you disobey my orders when it comes to resting,"

"I can't lie down and let you do everything Mal, I was good today, it'll scar over in a few days," Katherine informed him, taking out a cigarette and lighting it from one of the candles before grabbing her dinner and blowing out the dish full of candles that sat under a tripod.

"You can't trust so easily Katherine," Malachy scowled, watching as she blew smoke from her nose as she sighed, sitting down in an Indian position back on the couch and began to eat. "I'll go on watch, do me a favour and get an early night," He told her, looking down at his grandfather's watch to see that it was getting around to eight o'clock now. Malachy walked away from her, climbing the ladder beside the statue and up on a metal catwalk where the top windows are, his sniper clutched in his hand tightly.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was early morning when the siblings had begun their routine, working out and sparring before they even thought about breakfast. They made sure that each of them was ready for the day, bags packed and only anything that they really needed was lying on the table in case they had to break for it.

Malachy hung off the catwalk, doing chin ups with his wife beater loosely tucked in, dog tags hanging from his neck as he sweated out. Katherine on the other hand was skipping with a robe, something that didn't pressurize too much on her stomach with her hair tied up and her leather jacket and knife waited on the chair beside her.

They made eggs for breakfast, praying, and after that they did a spot of cleaning up around the church, making sure that the blood that they dragged in by their boots wasn't staining the floorboards.

They had really done a good job with the place, especially with only three rooms and a bathroom, the bathroom being a toilet, sink, cabinet and a shower that had been made out of a chemistry experiment, giving them hot water from a garden hose and sprinkler top. It was a good job they had more than enough water.

The main room was their living room of sorts, including a book shelf with many Irish books she had brought with her, including cooking recipes and their kitchen and food storage was included. Malachy had even made a table to go in between the couches so they didn't have to eat and drink with it in their lap. Two large cleavers were strapped underneath.

The next room was where the benches had sat, were changed into several beds, even though there was just two of them, and they were supplied with mattresses and blankets made from camping gear and the drapes from the windows. The beds were big enough for the average person, but if it came to it, they'd only be able to take the bedding.

"Do we need anything else from the cars?" Malachy dropped from the catwalk, his boots landing with a firm thud.

"Not that I know of," Katherine stopped skipping, breathlessly grabbing her cigarette packet.  
"You know you won't be able to run very much with your lungs rotting," Malachy stated with a smirk, drying the sweat off with a towel before grabbing an over shirt.

"It makes me look cool, I need to look good in an apocalypse," She replied dramatically, and one of the bells chimed raucously, meaning more than one thing had stepped over it. "Where is it?"

"Overlook," Malachy told her swiftly, watching as it chimed again. The Overlook was a tree house they found a few minutes from the church by walk, it was high enough to the point where they could hide inside, take out walkers from above. "You ain't going," He told her as he rushed over to the drawer by the stove and grabbed his sniper lying on the counter, and Katherine looked at him in outrage.

"What?"

"You heard me, after last night, I want those pills kicking in a little more," Malachy told her, heading from the office and Katherine stopped him, grabbing his arm.

"We've only got each other Malachy, McKinneys stick together," Katherine told him, her eyes pleading, not wanting to lose her brother again and she took the cigarette out, the end stained with red. He hesitantly nodded, so she grabbed her jacket and gun and they made their way out yet again into the woods. "If it was a herd, I wouldn't have been able to save your sorry ass," She told him with a stern voice once they reached the Overlook in less time than whatever was walking by, and they went straight up into the remodelled and disguised tree house, Malachy setting up his sniper and Katherine setting up her own, looking through the accurate scope trying to see the walkers.

"Three o'clock," Malachy whispered, looking through the scope with an eagle eye to see two men strolling through the forest, one man with combed back brown hair, and a thick beard beginning to grow, he was holding a revolver. The other was a little shorter than the other, a crossbow at the ready and he looked like he had been rolling around in the mud. Katherine recognised the one with the crossbow; he was sitting on the motorcycle the previous day with the group that came across.

"The kid's group?" Malachy muttered, and Katherine let out a whistling pigeon call, catching the attention of the men and they looked around to see where it came from. "You two down there, are you with Carl?" He called over to them, finger on the trigger.

"Where are you?" The crossbow guy let out with a southern drawl.

"Never you mind your pretty heads, yes or no?" Katherine questioned, her chain smokers voice sounding a little rusty.

"Yes, Carl is my son," The other shouted back, and Malachy nodded to Katherine, and they both exited the Overlook, getting back on the ground with the weapons close, observing the two men that had come into their territory.

"We told you not to past the purple paint," Malachy told the two men, holding his sniper close to him and Katherine was staring at the two men, analyzing them and the one with the crossbow stared at her back with defining blue eyes.

"We wanted to find you; I wanted to thank you personally for saving my son's life. My name is Rick Grimes, this is Daryl Dixon,"

"Rick Grimes?" Katherine repeated with a raised eyebrow, her eyes tearing away from Daryl's.

"I take it your Sargent and Doctor McKinney?"

"Katherine and Malachy," Malachy told Rick and Daryl, and then looking over to his sister's face, noticing the thoughtful look she had.

"Rick Grimes as in Officer Rick Grimes?" Katherine questioned and Rick nodded slowly, and a grin broke out from her lips. "It's me; we met in Atlanta, barbed wire fence?" She listed and Rick's eyebrows rose in realization. "Kinda' left you with the pizza guy but-"

"Kathy?" He grinned away, bringing her in for a hug.

"How're you doing Atlanta?" She smiled into his blood stained shoulder, cheek brushing against his unkempt facial hair.

"Erm, what?" Malachy double-took them, and then looked at Daryl in confusion. "You know each other? Barbed wire- is that the scar on your arm?" Malachy shouted, and she shushed him, looking around to see if any walkers came by.

"I can't believe it's you, it's been a while. How's your uncle, the others?" Katherine looked down with a sad smile, pushing the glasses up her nose that she had forgotten to take off before they left. "Oh Kath, I'm so sorry,"

"It's alright, thanks to them we have a safe place. We only knew about you being here because we have strong wires set up as a radius,"

"I knew that weren't no branch," Daryl muttered to himself and Katherine smiled.

"If I knew you were with that group we would have helped you, have you found a place?"

"We're still looking," Rick told her with an unsure look, he looked and sounded rougher than before.

"Bring your people back with us; we've got beds, food to last us until next year and hot water," Katherine informed them with an excited undertone, the heels of her boots softly crunching into the leafy ground.

"Really?" Malachy watched as Daryl's crystal blue eyes lit up like a Christmas tree at the words 'hot water'. While Katherine had a quick glance at the redneck, she could see that he was actually rather beautiful in the raggedy jeans and angel winged stitched vest he was wearing.

"Yes! Follow the trial until you find blue paint, the area around the church is safe; it's just the purple zone you need to watch out for. Go to where two trees meet as one, and there will be a small stone cemetery, there is a hatch underneath a stone angel, that will lead you under the church and into our office," Katherine explained, grabbing a piece of paper and pen that was conveniently in her pocket and wrote down the directions. "It's good seeing you again Officer Friendly," She smirked suggestively and he let out an embarrassed smile.

"You too Miss Impala, we'll be back within the hour,"

"If you see walkers on the ground, you're heading in the right direction. Smell keeps our humanity hidden," Malachy told them, putting the safety on his gun before turning around and heading back. Rick gave her a goodbye and he headed back with Daryl, and Katherine followed her sulking brother. "You've just invited another fucking group into the church Kath, what the fuck were you thinking?"

"I know him, he's a good man, and he's found his wife and child. Others that were with them, I recognized two others," Katherine protested his growl, rolling her eyes. "We invited a rogue group into our lives, and things went bad, but I know Rick, he saved my life in Atlanta, looking for you might I add. You owe that man thanks," She pushed a finger to his chest as she stormed in front of him, making him stop as they came to a blue tree.

"He saved your life? He ruined your arm! You can't hold a gun against your shoulder without getting kickback," Malachy slapped her hand away, pointing at her arm, thankfully half covered by the leather jacket she was wearing so he didn't have to see the ugly, raging purplish-red scars that were earned from climbing the fence to help get the truck. "It shakes all the time, I'm surprised you can even work out without pulling a muscle, or you can even stitch straight. I don't care what you say Katherine, but I'm protecting you like always, it's my job, I can't let them hurt you, not again,"

"If protecting me is your job, where the hell were you, for seven months when I really needed you? When I was trying to find you while you thought that killing families was the right thing to do? The group and I almost died in Fort Benning just to find you, it was overrun with walkers, and survivors from the military. So if anyone is protecting someone, it's me protecting you. There ain't no me if there ain't no you,"


End file.
